This invention relates to gas turbine engines, and deals more particularly with the construction of a nozzle assembly for supplying fluent materials to a burner can and with the manner in which a plurality of such nozzle assemblies are combined with a single burner can and with associated parts of the engine to facilitate removal of various parts from the engine for cleaning, repair or replacement or to provide repair or inspection access to other less easily removed engine parts.
The nozzle construction and arrangement of this invention may be used with various different models of gas turbine engines each having a compressor section, a combustion section, and a turbine section and each being of the type wherein the combustion section includes a plenum containing at least one burner can receiving air from the plenum and to which one or more fuels or other fluent materials are supplied to support combustion with the air in the can. In the following description and the accompanying drawings, however, the engine to which the invention is applied is taken to be one similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,991,562, 4,009,569 and 4,016,718, all assigned to the assignee of this application, to which reference is made for further details of the engine construction not repeated in this application.
In the operation of a gas turbine engine it is often necessary or desirable, when changing from one mode of operation to another, to vary the injection of fuel or other fluent material into the burner cans. For example, during starting it may be desirable to inject one fuel and during normal running to inject another or an additional fuel. Or, during starting it may be desirable to have the fuel injected into the burner can in one spray pattern and during normal running of the engine to have it injected with a different spray pattern. Along with the fuel or fuels it may also be desirable to inject water, steam, or other materials to enhance combustion or to reduce the amount of pollutants in the exhaust gases. Also, the nozzle heads of any nozzle assemblies used in a gas turbine usually require frequent inspection since they are subject to clogging due to coking or the catching of foreign particles contained in the fluent material passing therethrough.
The general object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a nozzle assembly for a gas turbine engine whereby a number of different fluent materials may be supplied, at separate times or simultaneously, to the nozzle head for injection into an associated burner can and/or by means of which different spray patterns may be obtained, the nozzle head nevertheless being relatively easily removable from the engine for inspection and for cleaning, repair, or replacement, if necessary.
Another object of this invention is to provide a plurality of nozzle assemblies of the foregoing character for each burner can of the engine and which plurality of nozzle assemblies is so arranged relative to the other parts of the engine and to the associated supply manifolds as to permit removal of the central liner of the associated burner can without disturbing the nozzle assemblies and their supply manifolds.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a plurality of nozzle assemblies which are mounted on a removable wall member of the engine and which may be entirely removed from the engine along with the wall member for inspection or repair and to provide a relatively large access opening for reaching other parts of the engine located in the combustion section.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the drawings and from the following description.